Die Füchsin Ermelyn Mit Ihren Kindern Im Fuchsbau Malepartus 1920

Lovis Corinth made this print of a vixen and her cubs using lithography, which means he was drawing with a greasy crayon onto a stone. I can imagine him, bending over the stone, rendering these blurry foxes that are all edges and angles. The marks are so light and quick, zinging across the surface of the paper, as if Corinth was in a hurry. He seems to be asking the question: how quickly can I capture the essence of 'foxness'? There's this feeling of immediacy, like he’s sketching from life, yet there's also a timeless quality to the image, echoing centuries of animal fables and fairy tales. I wonder what Corinth was thinking about, and what other stories of foxes he was turning over in his mind as he created this. Artists are always in conversation with each other and the past, and this print feels like part of an ongoing dialogue about how we see and depict the world around us.